Monday, October 2, 2017

PORTLAND, Ore. – A pair of convincing home victories against the Alaska schools this week and a continued undefeated run has earned No. 12 Northwest Nazarene volleyball this week’s GNAC/Red Lion Team of the Week award.

With dominating wins against No. 21 Alaska Anchorage and Alaska, the Crusaders improved to 6-0 in GNAC play. Northwest Nazarene along with No. 7 Cal Baptist are the two remaining undefeated teams in the West Region.

Prior to last week’s matchups, the Crusaders improved four spots in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division II Poll, moving up to No.12. In the latest AVCA rankings released today, Northwest Nazarene remains at No. 12, one spot behind No. 11 Western Washington.

On Thursday, Northwest Nazarene took down then-ranked No. 21 Alaska Anchorage in four sets to cruise to its first 6-0 start in conference play since 2014. The win snapped the Seawolves’ 12-match GNAC win streak and also gave the Seawolves their first GNAC road loss in 18 matches. The last time Alaska Anchorage lost a conference road match was in 2015, when they fell at Northwest Nazarene in four sets.

“Our offense was great tonight. It was a little bit of a struggle last weekend, but tonight Kendra, Mari and Madi had really good games,” said Crusader head coach Doug English on Thursday’s performance. “UAA is a good serving team; we had a rough patch in set three. But then we figured it out and responded really well in set four.”

The Crusaders continued their GNAC dominance on Saturday against Alaska, sweeping the Nanooks 25-12, 25-10, 25-18 at Johnson Sports Center. Northwest Nazarene’s comfortable victory moved them to 14-0 on the season.

Satisfied with the assertive result, English commented, “We played really focused volleyball today. Our serving took them out of system and made our blocking and defense really good tonight. Everyone on our team is working so hard in practice and to be able to reward them with playing time is a really good thing.”

Northwest Nazarene leads all GNAC teams in hitting percentage (.260), opponent hitting percentage (.146) and assists (13.42 per set). Middle blocker Madi Farrell and outside hitter Kendra Bodine lead the conference in points. Farrell is averaging a league-leading 4.89 points per set while Bodine ranks second with 4.64 per set.

Hitting the road this week, the Crusaders visit Seattle Pacific on Thursday at 7 p.m. and travel to Saint Martin’s on Saturday at 2 p.m. to wrap up the weekend.